This blog post/essay by historian of religion Kathyrn Lofton is pretty amazing. A taste:
First, you need a name. Not just any name. A weird name: a Biblical misspelling, maybe, or an invocation of some distant land. No matter what: the name needs an O. The O will come in handy when you need to summon a common sphere, encourage chanting, or design a gentle logo. Never deny the utility of its replication, never avoid its allusion, and never miss a moment for its branding. An O is a space anyone can fill with anything.
[...]
You will possess a preternatural ability to give people what they want, to know what they need, to sell what they will buy. Prepare yourself for this. You have to get over any anxieties about your own assimilation, incorporation, and amalgamation. Be the commodity. Put your O everywhere. Your iconography is how you brace against the disappointments of your humanity.
[...]
You are, as everyone knows, a Protestant. But you dabble in everything, shying not away from the Koran or kabbalah, Jewish professors or Eastern spiritual advisers. You will entertain anything that might embolden your O. You are the ambiguity of your epoch, the middle that makes the mass, the crossroads of a country that excited your youth, raped your ancestral continent, and claps now for your children. You are a global distribution suffused with spiritual truth. You are motivated with missionary zeal to convert everyone, unrelentingly, to change. You make them believe their best lives are yet to come. You make it impossible to look away, to hate, to dissent, or to change the channel. You make us feel good, finally. You are our redemption. You are our favorite smile. And you are our satisfaction at the possibility of a secular that made it all so.
Strong. Do read the whole thing. I eagerly await Lofton’s forthcoming book on the gospel of Oprah.
[Via Jason Kuznicki.]
The Alphoprah and the Obamega.
(Best I could do.)
The Story of O?
P.T. Barnum would be proud of the campaign orchestrated by the O's. We must admit, though, that most of the winning campaigns we have witnessed at the presidential level (and come to think of it most others?) have the same ring of sincerity that this one did. An individual who got up and said what he/she was going to do and really addressed the issues with realistic, tough medicine as the cure would never get elected president.
P.T. Barnum would be proud of the campaign orchestrated by the O's. We must admit, though, that most of the winning campaigns we have witnessed at the presidential level (and come to think of it most others?) have the same ring of sincerity that this one did. An individual who got up and said what he/she was going to do and really addressed the issues with realistic, tough medicine as the cure would never get elected president.
It's a good article. But all presidential candidates aim to make themselves icons, brands, whatever. You could write the same article about McCain. “First, start with a name. An ordinary, Biblical name. Blabitty blah.”
“Then, get a story. Get stuck in a cell, as a prisoner of war. Recite the story. Recite it until it is part of the very fabric of your soul. Then poo furtively in a field. Now you are ready. You are ready to lead now. You are the one to lead us out of our lack of military awesomeness. You are ready to lead all the conservatives who worship military service, and the liberals who feel ashamed that they don't. Blabitty blah.”
“Next, cultivate an image as a reformer. Take the lead on a high-profile reform effort. It's ok if you haven't always been clean yourself. In fact, it is better. Make this your redemption. Your redemption is this. You are our hope. You are the one we can turn to. You can fix our politics. You are the only one who can poo furtively in a field. You are ready to lead us.”
Etc….
Hey thanks for this. It's nice to know this kind of stuff!
Hey thanks for this. It's nice to know this kind of stuff!